NE T WORK ANALYS I S GIBSONTON AREA
301, Gibsonton Drive, or Symmes Road. Corridors such as US 41, US 301, Gibsonton Drive, Symmes Road, and East Bay Road experience high V/C ratios, intersection delays along these corridors are relatively low. This can be attributed to several factors: - In the areas of high V/C ratios along Symmes Road and East Bay Road, the intersections are either minor street stop-controlled or roundabouts. The roundabouts are at locations where there is little interaction between conflicting movements, which allow for a better flow of vehicles through the intersection. This means that even though there is a high volume of vehicles utilizing Symmes Road and East Bay Road, the intersections that act as endpoints are able to accommodate the volume efficiently , without causing high delays at the intersections. - The signals along Gibsonton Drive, US 41, and US 301 are timed to provide high green time to the major approaches to minimize the delay experienced by the high volume through movements. While the minor approaches along these arterials experience high levels of delay , this does not adversely affect the overall intersection delay significantly, due to their low volumes. This creates a scenario where corridors that experience high volumes in one direction are able to manage the flow of vehicles. Problems begin to occur at locations when multiple high volume conflicting movements interact, such as at the northbound I-75 on ramp and the Gibsonton Drive/Fern Hill Drive intersection. Congestion observed under the existing signalized intersection configuration at the Symmes Rd/East Bay Rd intersection is largely addressed by the E+C roundabout improvement project.
Other key observations include: US 41 experiences heavy congestion in the northbound direction during the AM peak period and in the southbound direction during the PM peak period as commuters pass through the study area. The yield condition at the northbound I-75 on ramp for the westbound right direction creates high delay and queuing that propagates along Gibsonton Drive. This is exacerbated by the new triple northbound lefts at the Gibsonton Drive/Fern Hill Drive intersection, which allows more vehicles to fill up the available space between the westbound on ramp and the Gibsonton Drive/ Fern Hill Drive intersection. The heavy congestion along westbound Gibsonton Drive, causes drivers originating from south of the study area to access northbound I-75 via Symmes Road and East Bay Road and entering I-75 from eastbound Gibsonton Drive. Due to their limited capacity, Symmes Road and East Bay Road also experience heavy congestion in the AM peak period. In the PM peak period, eastbound Gibsonton Drive experiences heavy congestion as vehicles exit southbound I-75. East Bay Road and Symmes Road also experience some congestion in this time period, but not as severely as in the AM peak period; drivers tend to use Gibsonton Drive more in the PM peak period to access US 301. Balm Riverview Road experiences a small uneven split in traffic between the AM and PM peak periods . During the AM, more vehicles utilize northbound Balm Riverview Road north of Gibsonton Drive, especially as vehicles enter from neighborhoods along Balm Riverview Drive and Park Drive. However, in the PM peak period, this portion of Balm Riverview Road in the southbound direction does not experience the same level of congestion, as vehicles utilize US
Summary Report
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